The present invention relates to game apparatus.
Various game boards are known for playing games such as draughts, Othello, and other similar games in which two or more players move tiles, counters or other playing pieces from place to place on a playing board consisting of an array of such places. Each player""s tiles are usually coloured differently from those of other players. In a game such as solitaire, playing pieces of just one colour are used. In some circumstances, it is inconvenient to have playing pieces which are not somehow fixed to the board. This is particularly so where the game apparatus is to be used whilst in transit, for example during a car or train journey. In such cases, it is known to provide playing pieces having magnets and a magnetic playing board to which the pieces can be releasably fixed during play. However, such pieces are often easily lost or dislodged from their position on the board and are therefore inconvenient to use.
There have been various proposals for playing pieces which are fixed more securely to the board. In EP-A-0237118, for example, there is disclosed a games board in which playing pieces are provided by triangular prisms which can rotate in respective recesses provided in an array across the board. Each of the three square or rectangular faces of the prismatic playing pieces bears a different image representing either a first type of counter, a second type of counter, or no counter at all. The playing pieces can be rotated in their recesses selectively to display the desired counter. Each of the playing pieces in EP-A-0237118 is held in its selected orientation by a flexible resilient portion of the housing which engages an edge of the playing piece. However, this requires close manufacturing tolerances to be achieved so that not too much nor too little engagement between the playing piece and the elastic portion of the housing is achieved. Also, the elastic portions can deteriorate over time. Furthermore, there is no convenient way of resetting the playing pieces for a new game and therefore the players have the laborious task of rotating each playing piece individually to an initialised position in which the blank faces of the playing pieces all face uppermost each time a new game is to be played.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided game apparatus, the game apparatus comprising: a plurality of playing locations at each of which is rotatably mounted a playing piece, each playing piece having an indicium thereon so that rotation of a playing piece to a selected orientation presents said indicium to a player; retaining means for retaining each playing piece in a selected orientation; and, reset means operable to reset the playing pieces for a new game.
In a preferred embodiment, the center of mass of each playing piece is offset from its axis of rotation, the reset means being operable to release the retaining means from retaining the playing pieces to allow the playing pieces to rotate under gravity thereby to reset the playing pieces.
Each playing piece may have a plurality of faces, at least one of said faces having an indicium thereon to distinguish that face from other faces of the playing piece. The retaining means may comprise at least one elastic member biased into engagement with the playing pieces, the reset means being operable to disengage said at least one elastic member from the playing pieces thereby allowing the playing pieces to be reset. Said at least one elastic member preferably comprises plural spring wires which are biased into engagement with respective ones of said playing pieces. Each playing piece may have an abutment, the spring wires engaging the abutments of the respective playing pieces to retain the playing pieces in a selected orientation.
The retaining means are preferably carried by a carriage which is displaceable to allow the playing pieces to be reset. Biasing means may be provided for biasing the carriage so that the playing pieces are normally retained in a selected orientation by the retaining means, the carriage being displaceable against the bias of the biasing means to allow the playing pieces to be reset.
The apparatus may comprise a lattice grid having a plurality of walls defining the plurality of playing locations and supporting the playing pieces. The playing pieces are conveniently rotatably mounted on respective axles supported by the grid.
Each playing piece is preferably captively mounted in said apparatus. In one embodiment, each playing piece is a triangular prism having three faces selectively presentable to a player by rotation of the playing piece. A first face of each playing piece may have a first indicium thereon indicating a first game counter and a second face of each playing piece may have a second indicium thereon indicating a second counter. The face of each playing piece may bear an indicium indicating the direction of rotation of the playing piece required to present a desired first or second indicium to a player.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided game apparatus, the game apparatus comprising: a plurality of playing locations at each of which is rotatably mounted a playing piece, each playing piece having a plurality of faces, at least one of said faces of each playing piece having an indicium thereon to distinguish that face from other faces of the playing piece so that rotation of a playing piece to a selected orientation presents said indicium to a player; a carriage carrying plural spring wires which are biased into engagement with respective ones of said playing pieces for retaining each playing piece in a selected orientation; and, biasing means for biasing the carriage so that the playing pieces are normally retained in the selected orientation by the spring wires, the carriage being displaceable against the bias of the biasing means to disengage the spring wires from the playing pieces thereby to allow the playing pieces to be reset for a new game.
The center of mass of each playing piece is preferably offset from its axis of rotation in a direction opposite a predetermined face of said playing piece, the playing pieces rotating under gravity to present said predetermined faces to a player thereby to reset the playing pieces when the spring wires are disengaged from the playing pieces.
Thus, in preferred embodiments, the game apparatus of the present invention has playing pieces which may be securely fixed to the board so that there are no loose playing pieces. The playing pieces are easily reset for a new game. For a game such as Othello, the reset position is one in which all of the playing pieces present a blank face or surface to the players, indicating an empty playing board. The movement of counters around the board is mimicked by rotating appropriate playing pieces to present an appropriate indicium to the players.
The present invention is described in more detail below in the detailed description which follows, with reference to the following drawings.